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Strings 'n' things >> Pop maestro Joe Pernice thanks God he's not a country boy--anymore by CHRIS YURKIW
But something really funny happened on the way to the used CD store, when you sold your copy of Monster: strings were suddenly the thing. Ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler actually realizes St. Hubbins' dream (save the name orchestra) and the result is People Move On (Creation, 1998), an album of gorgeous, aching pop that's as cool as it is 1972. Ex-grunge guys Sloan jump into the "orch pop" pit with a couple of songs on their latest, Navy Blues. And there was even talk that a relative upstart in High Llamas leader/Stereolab string arranger Sean O'Hagan would help reinvigorate the new album from THE GOD of symphonic pop, Brian Wilson. This was no joke. For a guy living in rural Massachusetts named Joe Pernice, the giant leap from his ol' Scud Mountain Boys' "alterna-country" to the "orch pop" of his new group, the Pernice Brothers, was more like a small step. Pernice was a classic pop songsmith trapped in the body of a nouveau country band, more likely to nod to the wimp-pop of Bread or the sheen of pre-Joe Walsh Eagles than the "rootsiness" of Hank Williams or the Carter Family. At least, that's how it seemed on the Scud's third sombre and sublime album Massachusetts (Sub Pop). "Yeah, that's how I felt, too," says Pernice, his warbling Boa-ston accent not at all like his subdued, singing rasp. "When I was writing all those songs I wasn't really thinking 'country music.' It was interesting at the time, but it started to get a little stale for me. I know that if we had made a fourth record I would have been pulling my hair out the whole time." No, it wasn't a stretch at all from covering Jimmy Webb with the Boys (RIP 1993-97) to actually bringing in strings for Overcome by Happiness (Sub Pop), the Pernice Brothers' debut. There are times, however, when even an incorrigible sonic sap like Pernice feels the need to defend to pop. "There's nothing shameful about it," he once uttered. But why does shame even come into it? Especially in these days of lapsed indie-rock fans falling all over stuff like ABBA, the Carpenters and, in a less trashy vein, orch-pop? "Yeah," says Joe, "but I see a lot of those things as being as ironic as the way some bands play country music, where it's not a real, honest love--it's tongue-in-cheek. It's half poking fun at it... I'm not poking fun at it. I mean, I love the Bee Gees. They're not my favourite band, but I truly like them and I don't see them as half schlock, half talent." And finally, the $59 question for any indie band who ever considered using a cellist: will we see strings on stage with the Pernice Brothers? No go, says Joe: "We can't do it now. It's too expensive. Plus, we all wouldn't get our own seat in the van." Pernice Brothers open for Morcheeba at the Spectrum this Tuesday, September 29, 8pm, $17.50+taxes
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"You know, I've always wanted to do my songs with the London Symphony Orchestra," says Spinal Tap's David St. Hubbins, toward the end of the classic mockumentary when it seems that his beloved heavy metal band is on the verge of breaking up. Ah, strings--the last refuge of a rocker on the rocks, right? (Or is it country music? We'll get to that). And oh-so-funny because everyone knows that while a guitar might resemble a violin or a cello, there's a chasm of cultural difference between a pick and a bow. Jimmy Page, the joke's on you.